the ancestor axis contains the ancestors of the context node; the ancestors of the context node consist of the parent of context node and the parent's parent and so on; thus, the ancestor axis will always include the root node, unless the context node is the root node.

/AAA/BBB/DDD/CCC/EEE/ancestor::*
Select all elements given in this absolute path
<AAA> <BBB> <DDD> <CCC> <DDD/> <EEE/> </CCC> </DDD> </BBB> <CCC> <DDD> <EEE> <DDD> <FFF/> </DDD> </EEE> </DDD> </CCC> </AAA>
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//FFF/ancestor::*
Select ancestors of FFF element
<AAA> <BBB> <DDD> <CCC> <DDD/> <EEE/> </CCC> </DDD> </BBB> <CCC> <DDD> <EEE> <DDD> <FFF/> </DDD> </EEE> </DDD> </CCC> </AAA>
Open the example in XLab. \| Tree view (PNG)

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